Clinker tongs



y 1932. w. H. ENGEL 1,857,841

CLINKER TONG S Filed Nov. 17, 1950 Patented May 10, 1932 UNITED ST TES WILLIAM H. ENGEL, or MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN CLINKER Tones Application filed November 17, 1930. Serial No. 496,078.

My invention relates to an improvement in clinker tongs.

The object of my invention is to provide a clinker tong wherein the clinker contacting 5 points or prongs are so disposed as to make it possible to effect the purpose of the device under circumstances common to the use thereof in furnaces having small doors or doors positioned above the bed of fire in the fire pot.

Another object of my invention is to provide a clinker tong wherein the parts are quite largely composed of standard steel material obtainable upon any market and so shaped T as .to be easy of manufacture.

Another object of my invention is to provide a handle formed generally of wire but so designed as to be easy of assembly and virtually impossible of accidental release from the shank on which the handle is mounted.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective of my clinker tong and handle therefor.

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the handle extremity of my clinker tong with a portion of the spring wire handle offset therefrom to show the comparative size thereof.

Like parts are identified by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

Clinker tongs are generally used in furnaces where automatic stokers or other devices for maintaining a fire result in the maintenance of a bed of coals at an elevation somewhat below the fire door opening, through which clinkers must be retracted after the tong has grasped them. I therefore provide a clinker tong including a long shank made of square steel which terminates forwardly in a tong tooth 11, offset from the straight. shank 10 upon an angularly disposed arm 12.

As a mounting for another grapple tooth 13 I provide a grapple arm 14 somewhat longer than the arm 12, and the tooth 13 is set at an obtuse angle to the grapple arm, 14 whereas the tooth 11 is set at an acute angle with respect to its arm 12.

The grapple arm 14 is mounted upon a reciprocable slide member 15 composed of square steel tubing having a sliding fit upon the shank 10. I prefer to spot weld or braze the grapple arm 14 to the squaresteel tubing 15 at 16 although other means of securing the parts together at that point may be used.

The square steel tubing is intended toextend along the shank 10 so as toprovide a handle for controlling the grapple arm 14 andits corresponding tooth 13, since opera tion of the clinker tong contemplates the reciprocation of the square steel tubing upon the shank 10 by an operator who will hold the square steel tubing 15 with one hand and my improved'spring handle with the other hand. a a j The spring handle heretofore referred to is mounted upon the end of shank 10 which is prepared for the assembly of the spring handle-by the formation of corner notches 17 so that when a piece 'of spring wire 18 is formed as indicated in'the drawings it may be threaded upon the shaft 10 as hereinafter described. 7 a The spring wire'18 of the handle includes convolutions 19 which are of smallerdiam: eter than the cross section of the shank 10, intermediate convolutions 20 which are sufficiently large to enable the user of my tong to easily grasp the handle, and convolutions 21 at the other end of the spring portion of my handle which are again of smaller diameter than the cross section of the shank.

I have found that when a spring wire handle such as that described above is threaded upon a square or rectangular shank such as the one shown at 10 and notched as indicated at 17, the convolutions 19 and 21 are exing a wedging action upon the arms 12 and 14 to eXert a wracking force.

To those who are acquainted with the problem of extracting clinkers from a fire box the advantages of the relative lengths of the arms 12 and 14 Will be apparent since the disposition of the shank through the furnace door must in most cases be angular, somewhat as indicated in the drawings, with the result that the length of the arm 1 1 will dispose the point 13 in proper relation to the clinker to r be grasped much more readily than would be the case where the arm 14 is of the same length as the arm 12.

I claim; 7

1. A tong having tong arm carrying members reciprocable upon one another, of wedge pointed teeth upon said tong arms and a stop for limiting the reciprocation of said member to prevent wedging action between said teeth. .ZJA tong having a shank and a reciprooable member on the shank of a short arm comprising an angularly disposed extension of the shank, a longer arm comprising an angularly disposed extension of the reciprocable member, each of said arms being provided with an angularly disposed pointed extremity. v

3. A tong having tong arm carrying members, one of said members being housed withinthe other, said members being reciprocable upon one another, the angularity of the contacting surfaces of the said tong carrying members being such as to prevent oscillation of said members upon each other.

4. A tong having tong arm carrying members, one of sa1d members belng housed within the other, said members being reciprocable upon one another and formed respectively in rectangular tube and rectangular shaft configuration whereby to prevent oscillation or rotation of said members with respect to each other.

WILLIAM H. ENGEL 

